News and Analysis
6 E-Commerce Tools for Brick-and-Mortar SMBs
Brick-and-mortar merchants are moving their stores online or developing combination solutions that encompass both website sales and curbside pickup to keep pace with customer demand. Many of those businesses that haven’t made the switch are weighing their options and looking for the right technology. Plug-and-play e-commerce platforms tend to be the most popular route for merchants looking to quickly pivot to online sales, but features like scalability, flexibility, and integration with inventory management software are also important to SMBs.
Here are six e-commerce solutions that brick-and-mortar merchants will want to check out.
Third-Party Data May Help Brands Fill Gaps Opened by Covid
The Covid-19 pandemic altered fundamental daily behaviors in most consumers’ lives almost overnight. For some, it had even more drastic effects for better and worse, shifting jobs and spending habits as well as where people go and how they spend their time.
For businesses, the drastic changes of 2020 mean existing data may be unreliable. Ruby Brenden, head of data products at data management platform Lotame, described the stakes of the current situation to Street Fight and gestured toward opportunities to meet the moment.
A More Granular Look at What Kinds of Data Consumers Are Happy to Disclose
Despite all the understandably scary headlines about the risks of data collection, plenty of consumers are still willing to provide personal information to brands. The catch? They need something in return, and the type of advertising as well as the type of data on which it’s based are crucial to securing consumer trust.
Commentary
GateHouse Media Shows How Media Orgs Can Offer Value for SMB Advertisers
“Most newspapers and Yellow Pages (and Yelp?) are basically ad-selling machines. GateHouse, in selling HR, IT, and financing services as well as digital services, understands that once you know how to sell one service, you can sell (or more likely upsell) any service. It’s critical for legacy organizations to bite the bullet and figure out services,” writes Mike Blumenthal.
Latest Posts
LBMA Report Finds Global Expansion of NFC Tech in 2017
In polling more than 500 marketing executives from around the globe, the study found that the most heavily deployed location-based marketing technology varies significantly from country to country. For example, GPS is the top technology currently deployed in the U.K., while WiFi is the top-deployed technology in the U.S.
Why It’s Too Early to Go All In on Virtual Assistants
As the so-called customer journey takes new twists and turns, tech companies and agencies should help local businesses and brands differentiate themselves via user experience. Catering to virtual assistants might seem to be the path towards that goal. But it’s probably too early to make huge bets on these technologies.
Street Fight Daily: Intel Buys Mobileye for $15.3B, NJ Journalists Start Local Paper
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Intel is Paying $15.3 Billion to Acquire Mobileye… After Punishing Layoffs, New Jersey Journalists Start Up Their Own Local Paper… Optimizing Digital Marketing Performance to Drive Business Performance…
5 Platforms Connecting Local Customers to their Online Footprints
More than half of marketers expect cross-channel measurement and attribution to occupy most of their time, attention, and resources in the coming year. Many of these marketers will be exploring new technologies that close the loop on attribution and unlock the hidden connections between web viewing sessions and in-store purchases around the globe.
How San Angelo LIVE! Makes Programmatic Work in West Texas
When the West Texas oil bust hit San Angelo hard in 2015 and LIVE!’s CEO Joe Hyde turned to programmatic advertising to make up the difference in lost sales from struggling local merchants. To maximize that impact, artificial-intelligence platform Ezoic showed Hyde how to create longer revenue-generating sessions with users.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Tackles Brick-and-Mortar, WhatsApp Tests Chat Tools for Businesses
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Confirms Plans for a 10th Book Store, Demonstrating Commitment to Brick-and-Mortar… WhatsApp Tests Business Chat Tools in Search for Revenue… Joe Ricketts, Local News Publisher and Trump Backer, Acquires Gothamist Websites…
Google’s Pragmatic Approach to the Truth, and Its Pitfalls
If enough people believe something, should Google consider it to be true? In a world where questionable news is very popular, it’s not so surprising that Google’s logical assumptions might sometimes produce unexpected results. After all, trustworthiness at root is a matter of how many people are willing to trust you.
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